Falling

It feels sudden, but the air has changed, and it is colder and windier and the trees are beginning to lose their leaves and winter threatens. It is remarkable that the temperature was in the 90s last week and we were worried that the children were suffering in the heat while at school. One day last week, one of my patients asked about Maya, because the county schools had closed early for the day, when it was decided that the children were in danger.

Maya wore short shorts last week and moved to jeans these past few days. She likes that there is no uniform at Montessori. I miss the neatness of the uniforms at Alberto Einstein, although the bottoms were jeans there. Maya lost her jacket the last day of school in Quito. I wanted to find the jacket but there was no time. Maya was in the habit of losing jackets quite regularly last year.

I am still trying to sort out my 'free' day. Since I never finished my billing yesterday, I hoped to get some work done today. Unfortunately, I was side tracked again. I am putting together another yoga trip to the jungle and met with Sid to decide about details. I worked on getting approval for some non generic drugs for my patients without much success. This takes an inordinate amount of time, much of it wasted listening to prompts on the phone. I spent an half hour last week on one patient's meds and discovered today that I had to do it all over again. This is the part of medicine that is absolutely no fun. I like to talk to patients, not deal with red tape.

I did get to a pilates class and discovered that my body has not weathered the year well. Whereas with ordinary everyday pursuits it is not evident that I have any neurological deficits, with the precision of pilates, the impairments are obvious. I was hoping to avoid surgery by being strong and in good shape, but with nerve and spinal cord damage, I feel helpless and defeated. I suppose I must feel thankful that I continue to function so well, that I am still doing so much, but today it became clearer that my physical health is deteriorating. I will enjoy the freedom of movement I have now for as long as possible.

Maya had a ballet class and a soccer practice. It as amusing to watch her change out of her dainty ballet outfit into her soccer shorts, pulling out her precise little bun, and roar out onto the soccer field with so much enthusiasm. We met Eric for dinner at Belvedere Square, where every Friday, the streets are closed off and a street fest takes over, with a live band and dancing and all the local restaurants setting up booths with their most popular items.